Odyssey 1.399 · Book 1, lines 399–402
On the knees of the gods
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τὸν δʼ αὖτʼ Εὐρύμαχος Πολύβου πάϊς ἀντίον ηὔδα·
Eurymachus — Τηλέμαχʼ, ἦ τοι ταῦτα θεῶν ἐν γούνασι κεῖται, ὅς τις ἐν ἀμφιάλῳ Ἰθάκῃ βασιλεύσει Ἀχαιῶν· κτήματα δʼ αὐτὸς ἔχοις καὶ δώμασιν οἷσιν ἀνάσσοις.
Then Eurymachus, son of Polybus, spoke to him in answer: Telemachus, truly these things lie on the knees of the gods — whoever shall be king in sea-girt Ithaca of the Achaeans; but may you yourself keep your goods and be lord in your own house.
Word by word
The setting
Eurymachus, another leading suitor and the son of Polybus, answers Telemachus. His tone is smoother than Antinous's: he grants Telemachus his household and even his personal safety, and lays the question of kingship on the gods.
A note on this passage
Eurymachus plays the reasonable man. Where Antinous sneered, he concedes: the crown is the gods' business, and Telemachus may keep his property and rule his own halls. It sounds like fairness, even generosity.
The undercurrent is that the concession costs him nothing. Kingship ‘lies on the knees of the gods’ — a proverbial way of saying no living man decides it, which conveniently removes it from Telemachus's grasp without any suitor lifting a hand. And a household is exactly what the suitors are devouring from the inside. Eurymachus grants Telemachus the one thing already being taken and defers the one thing already denied him. The smoothness is the danger: this is the suitor the poem marks as the plausible one, and plausibility is his weapon.
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